The present invention relates in general to meters and it is concerned, more particularly, with a digital panel meter that is primarily adapted as a replacement meter for a standard analog panel meter. Even more particularly, the present invention relates to a digital panel meter having an associated alarm relay.
Reference is now made to U.S. Pat. No. 4,157,501 on a digital panel meter owned by the present assignee herein. This prior patent describes a digital panel meter including an input range circuit employing jumpers for selecting different amplitude ranges. Although the digital panel meter described in this patent is more than adequate for its intended usage, it does not provide any external signaling upon attaining a trip point.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved digital panel meter and one which in particular has means for providing an output signal indicating the attaining of a particular trip point usually set by the user of the meter.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a digital panel meter that is easy to install and calibrate even by a non-technical person.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a digital panel meter that is relatively compact and that permits a decimal point setting by switch means.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved digital panel meter that has an audio signal circuit for providing an audio signal in response to attaining the trip point.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved digital panel meter as in accordance with the preceeding object and in which the audio signal may be enabled or inhibited, and in which the audio signal may also be selected to be of continuing or short duration.